Doggydaddy's Den

Thursday, February 9, 2017

DoggyDaddy's Dailies 2/10/17

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Logan is ready to root for UConn with his new Huskie jammies!!!!!

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I'm working on the UConn/South Carolina Pre Game Report and trying to pack it with as much information as I can. Because of that, I won't be writing the Post Game report for the UConn/Cincinnati game and the Pre Game Report for the UConn/SMU game.

But here is my write up for the Post Game report from the first SMU game. Hopefully that will give you some info on how Saturday's game will go.

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South Carolina played their warm-up game Thursday night for the UConn game against a pretty weak Auburn team, 60-41.

The scoring was dominated by the starting lineup with Wilson scoring 17 points and Coates scoring 16. The bench got plenty of time, but was only able to score 4 points and had 9 turnovers.

Based on this and other games I looked at, South Carolina starters are going to have to play 35-40 minutes to have a chance against the Huskies.

Looks like the benching of Cuevas-Moore was intentional - "South Carolina coach Dawn Staley wanted to take more time on offense, perhaps with an eye toward shortening a game against UConn, an opponent which can overwhelm opponents in transition. Staley mostly liked what she saw, saying when the Gamecocks broke ranks, Auburn made them pay with a fast-break basket or two. To that end, South Carolina backup point guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore played only five minutes and didn't get a shot off. Cuevas-Moore's specialty is fast-paced, high-impact scoring."

Wow....changing her tactics to try to slow down UConn? I suppose it makes some sense.

But...scoring 60 points against Auburn won't cut it against UConn.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Kia Nurse has been the model of consistency for her 2 1/2 years at Uconn. Her first two years, she scored 399 and 354 points, as well as handing out 108 and 104 assists. In 23 games this season, she has 305 points and 98 assists. Clearly, she should improve both her point and assists totals by the season's conclusion. As the team's iron man, she is averaging 32.4 minutes of playing time every game. That is up from last year, when she played 28.3 minutes per game.

With a record of 99-1 in her two and a half seasons, Kia is used to success on the court. She is contributing to this year's 23-0 record by being 1st in free throw % (86.1%), 2nd in made threes (47), 2nd in assists (98), 3rd in scoring (305) points and 4th in steals (27). Her 13.3 point per game average is 3rd on the team and the highest in her career. She is the perfect compliment to three point gunner Katie Lou, down low post wizard Napheesa, high flying Gabby and "steady eddy" Saniya.

As the only 3 year starter, Kia has taken over the leadership role left by the departure of the Big Three. According to Geno, Kia had "the most difficult job on the team and she has handled it beautifully." High praise from the boss... 8-)

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS

UConn's Kia Nurse earns CoSIDA All-Academic honor Jim Fuller

UConn's Gabby Williams Joins Wooden Award Late-Season List; Collier Dropped Courant

Sycamore grad Pavlech joins Auriemma’s UConn staff Cincinnati

Watching my dad coach women's basketball helped me become a feminist ESPN

Gamecocks take out Auburn, switch focus to UConn The State

Upsets in Red

Late games in Green

No. 3 Maryland women roll past Illinois, 84-59 SF Gate

4 Mississippi State Vanderbilt

Thomas leads No. 5 FSU women past Wake Forest USA Today

No. 6 South Carolina powers past Auburn 60-41 AP

12 Louisville 88 Virginia Tech 70
16 Miami 63 Virginia 52
17 NCST 75 Georgia Tech 67 OT

No. 24 Lady Vols pull away in 4th quarter to beat Missouri 77-66 Daily Journal

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Statistical Sites

National Statistics

Rankings and RPI Sites

Realtime Daily RPI

Massey Rankings and Matchups

Jeff Sagarin Basketball Ratings

NCAA D1Women's RPI

ESPN AP and Coaches Poll

ESPN Conference Standings

Warren Nolan RPI and SOS

Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!

College Fans Only - WCBB board where no holds are barred

Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board

CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board

ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board

Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

Videos

BBallnut's Games from the 90's/00's

UConn Women replays

UCONN Information

2016-17 Online Media Guide

UConn 2016-2017 Roster

UConn 2016-2017 Statistics

UConn 2016-2017 Schedule

I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

DoggyDaddy's Dailies 2/9/17

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Remember when I posted pictures of the beach? Ahhh......the good ole days!!!

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With the UConn/South Carolina game coming up on Monday and more than likely be an opportunity to be going for a 100 game winning streak, there will be plenty of discussion by UConn fans about the matchup.

One such discussion talked about the possibility of Geno moving Butler into the starting lineup. One poster said that she should start for Gabby. Another said Butler should start for Chong. All I can do when I read stuff like this is laugh. Or cry that anyone would be that crazy to think that could or should happen.

Geno NEVER changes his starting lineup to counter the strength of another team. NEVER. He forces the other teams to adjust to UConn. It's much more likely that South Carolina goes small before Geno goes big.

Another reason is that (no offense to Natalie) Butler is just not that effective. Yes, she will give a few positive minutes against Coates. She certainly isn't quick enough to guard Wilson.

Butler will get 10-12 minutes of play, just to give Collier and Williams a few minutes of rest. We've seen Geno shrink the lineup in games like this. It won't be any different against South Carolina.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

UConn fans are still talking about Napheesa Collier's shooting night against Cincinnati on Tuesday. She went 9-9 from inside the three point arc and 1-1 from outside. Add in 3-3 from the free throw line and you have a perfect shooting night. Might as well mention the 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 blocks and 1 steal. All that in just 29 minutes. But Collier has been on a similar hot stretch for all of 2017, 11 games in a row, not just Tuesday night.

Starting with UCF on January 1st, Napheesa is 93-118 from inside the three point arc. That is 78.2% for lay ups, pull ups and fall away jumpers. She is also 3-8 from three point range, but that is not her main game. In that stretch, Pheesa has scored between 6-12 baskets every night. In fact, she has 6 baskets once, 7 baskets twice, 8 baskets four times, 9 baskets once, 10 baskets twice and 12 baskets against Temple.

For the season, Collier has 189 baskets, to lead the team, and is shooting 68.7% from the field. The nearest Huskies are Gabby with a shooting accuracy of 56.6%, then Katie Lou at 49.7%. Napheesa has more baskets that Gabby and Saniya combined (177 vs 189). Even on a team with Katie Lou Samuelson, Pheesa has lead the team in scoring 10 games versus KLS at 9 times. All this explains why UConn is now scoring an even 87.0 points per game. 8-)